[Japo]

Thanks. I had already cleaned the dust. I even unplugged the card completely so I could look at it carefully and remove every bit or dust from the inside. It wasn't really dirty, but now the heatsink is as clean as a mirror. Before with the case open I could see the fan spinning, no noise or vibration, and when I took the card out it span OK by hand.

Right now I have closed the case again, with no activity whatsoever I have around 50º C (ambient 20º). Enabling double desktop and reproducing a video raises it to around 76º and the fan spins at around 15% (over the minimum), but I haven't had the problem again. These 76º C are below the middle of the temperature gauge shown in Catalyst, not in the red or orange, as if it's a safe value.

Anyway I think the problem happened in the past after a long time, for example when I was watching many episodes in a row. But I think the temperature was more or less similar (now the ambient may be slightly cooler than a couple of days ago), although it's now that I'm starting to monitor it more closely.

Tinkering with the card itself would be the last resort for me, besides I loathe spending more time with this. Since the card's working (most of the time) I can't expose myself to being left with no card at all. I would try tweaking the fan before.

At any rate when I had the case open I touched the copper heat sink and it felt really hot, which is good. It would be bad if the circuitry were hot but the heatsink weren't.